SEBRING — It seems the pain at the pump may not be the only way we'll pay for high gasoline prices. While medical device repairman Jason Rybinski is parking his 2005 GMC Sierra pickup truck in favor of a Japanese sedan, Sheriff Susan Benton is upping her 2009 gasoline budget from $498,000 to $800,000. So even though the sheriff has told her department heads to assemble a flat budget, more tax money than ever will buy fuel for deputies to protect Highlands County. ...more

May 25, 2008

SEBRING — Dan Feathers has raised prices at his dry cleaning business and so has florist Ladonna Paedae-Rodriguez. Kenny Long, president of Long's Air Conditioning Inc., might have to do the same thing. Local businesses are feeling the impact of higher gas prices and are trying to find ways to keep costs down. According to the American Automobile Association, motorists are paying about 90 cents a gallon more for gas now than they did last year. Guy Caruso, chief of the Energy Department's statistical division, the Energy Information Administration, predicted recently that gasoline prices, now averaging $3.11 a gallon nationwide, will rise another 10 cents by December. A jump of 15 cents a gallon from current levels, already well above last year's average of $2.23, also would surpass May's all-time record of $3.23 a gallon. ...more

November 25, 2007